U.S. Life Expectancy Drops for First Time in Decades

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One of the main ways that scientists measure the overall health and well-being of a nation is by tracking the rate at which its citizens die and how long they are expected to live. For the first time in over 20 years, the U.S. has seen a drop in overall life expectancy.

“This is a big deal,” said Philip Morgan, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in an interview with NPR. “There’s not a better indicator of well-being than life expectancy. The fact that it is leveling off in the U.S. is a striking finding.”

Latinos are the nation’s largest racial and ethnic minority group. As a population they are expected to grow from 1 in 6 people today to 1 in 4 by 2035 and 1 in 3 by 2060. As Latinos are becoming a growing “force” in all facets of life, the life expectancy of Americans overall is greatly impacted by Latinos.

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In 2015, the overall death rate increased from 724.6 per 100,000 people to 733.1 per 100,000. On average, the overall life expectancy, for someone born in 2015, fell from 78.9 years to 78.8 years. The life expectancy for the average American man fell two-tenths of a year — from 76.5 to 76.3. For women, it dropped one-tenth — from 81.3 to 81.2 years.

Many factors are looked at as point toward the drop in life expectancy. Among them are the obesity epidemic, which disproportionately affects Latinos. Deaths from heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and possibly Alzheimer’s have all been linked to obesity.

“When you see increases in so many of the leading causes of death, it’s difficult to pinpoint one particular cause as the culprit,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics. “There is a chance that the latest data, from 2015, could be a one-time blip.”